The prior art is replete with methods and articles used to confine or store a wide variety of environmental contaminants ranging from completely capping, in-situ, contaminated sediments that are left in-place in underwater environments; terrestrial landfills wherein dredged or otherwise collected contaminated sediments are placed within an engineered disposal site surrounded with an impervious liner system and capped with an impervious material; and the use of a reactive mat and/or reactive backfill that surrounds the contaminated material.
There is difficulty in deploying sorbent or reactive materials if the materials must be deployed underwater, over a contaminant-containing waterway bottom contamination site, where the active contaminant sorbent or reactive material is water buoyant (has a specific gravity less than that of the water, e.g., <1.0).